Meeting Your Demon
by hinatasgreatestfan
Summary: Naruto finds himself trapped in his mindscape along with the Kyubi. Will the fox be helpful or will Naruto have to find a way out of his mindscape on his own?
1. Trapped!

A/N: Hey all! Hinatasgreatestfan here again! This is the other fic I am adopting from Mr. Alaska. I've gotten his approval to do this, and I am essentially rewriting this fic from the ground up, so all I'm really adopting is the basic concept. However, I hope you all enjoy it anyway!

Chapter 1

There are times in life when it's better to be proven wrong than it is to be proven right. Naruto Uzumaki, Number One Prankster and Knucklehead Ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, was, for the very first time in his life, experiencing such a moment. He had been feeling extremely down for days now, nearly panicking in fact, as the Chunin Exam Finals, and his fight with Neji Hyuga, approached. The result of this was that he'd found himself wandering around the village, head hanging low, and had ended up back at the training ground where Kakashi had granted him, Sakura, and Sasuke their Genin ranks. That felt like a lifetime ago...was it really just a few months?

Upon arriving at the training ground with its three training posts, Naruto was surprised to find that he wasn't the only one there. Hinata Hyuga, cousin and recent victim of Neji, was there, seemingly having a staring contest with one of the posts. "Oh, hey, Hinata," Naruto had said, his voice soft, almost hesitant.

Hinata jumped and turned, her eyes betraying...not fear, but immense surprise. "Oh, Naruto!" she said, her normally low, timid voice full of shock at seeing him there. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing really," Naruto said, trying to hide his fears behind fake cheer like he always did. This time, though, it just wasn't working. "It's just...this is where I became a Genin, so I come here to think sometimes."

"Sure, but aren't you going to be late?" Hinata asked, her voice betraying her concern. Naruto looked at her, his eyes showing her how deeply scared he really was. Hinata gasped at the intensity of his fear; she'd never seen anyone look so vulnerable as he did at that moment. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"I'm just really worried about the fight, that's all," Naruto told her; he wasn't really sure why he was opening up to Hinata like this, but he never thought twice about doing it. It just felt...right to tell her, somehow. "I mean, I know I'm always the underdog and all that, but I'm so worried that I'll screw up, this time in front of the whole village."

The obvious fear in Naruto's voice gave Hinata some small amount of courage, and she stepped closer to him. Resting one hand gently on his arm, she spoke in a quiet yet steady and, surprisingly, confident voice. "You know, Naruto, you may screw up, but you know something?" Naruto shook his head, his eyes full of surprise and wonder at the normally shy girl in front of him. "I know for a fact that, even if you do mess up, you'll just get right back up and try again, just like you do every time you do something wrong. I think...that determination, that will to keep going, is what true strength is. I think you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto. That's what I've always admired most about you, Naruto: how you could always keep getting up and trying again, even when everyone around you was knocking you down. It always made you – how can I say it? – a proud failure, from my point of view."

Hinata's words had proven him wrong not only about Hinata herself, but about something else as well: he'd always thought that no one had noticed how hard he tried. But now, he knew, Hinata admired him for that very thing. So now, here he was, about to leave the training ground to head to the arena to face Neji. But first, he had to say a few things to the girl he now realized he barely knew. "Thanks for that, Hinata," he said first. "I really needed to hear that. I'm glad someone has seen how hard I've always tried. Thank you." He paused a moment, thinking. There was more he needed to say. "Hinata...I always thought you were...a dark, quiet weirdo," he said, his voice thoughtful now. Hinata's face fell. "But you know," he added. "I actually like...people like you!"

Naruto looked up as he said this and saw fireworks going off in the distance. _"Oh, no, I'm going to be late!"_ he thought in a panic. He was about to turn to say one more thing to Hinata, but, before he could, it looked to him like the fireworks came flying toward him! Just when they would have slammed into his eyes, Naruto closed them instinctively in an attempt to protect them. He'd been expecting some loud sound or some extreme pain, but instead there was...nothing? Everything went quiet. Opening his eyes hesitantly, Naruto found himself in a place that reminded him somehow of the basement of his apartment building. It took a second for him to realize this was because it looked like a boiler room. Wait, a boiler room? It couldn't be...

**"Ha ha ha! It's about time you came to visit me, brat!"** a voice roared. Naruto turned in surprise and found, as he'd just realized, he was in front of the Kyubi's cage.

"I don't have time for this!" he yelled in frustration. "I need to get to the arena...I can't be late to the Finals!" His brows furrowed in determination. "I have to beat Neji!"

The huge fox within the cage in Naruto's mindscape, for that is where he was, laid down and rested his head on his front paws. He regarded Naruto with a mix of amusement and what looked like morbid curiosity. **"And just exactly how do you intend to get out of here?"** the fox asked.

"What do you mean, you stupid fox?" Naruto asked in response. Kyubi pointed behind and above Naruto with one of his tails. Naruto looked around him and found, to his shock, that he was trapped within a cage similar to Kyubi's. Above, below, and on three sides of him were bars, with the fourth wall of his cage being the gate that led into the fox's enclosure. "What the hell is that?" Naruto ran at the bars furthest from the fox and began beating on them. The sound of fists against metal rang out throughout the cavernous area, but Naruto was unable to put even a dent into any of the bars. The fox watched all of this with the same morbid curiosity and amusement he'd been regarding Naruto with before. Suddenly, Naruto wheeled on the fox and roared, "YOU!"

Kyubi looked taken aback by this. **"Me? What in the world do you mean, brat? I didn't do that! You're not trapped in here by anything I've done," **the fox growled. Naruto looked at him a moment, looking suspicious. He saw no deceit in the fox's eyes, much to his surprise.

Suddenly, a third voice joined the conversation. "Kukuku. Indeed, Naruto, your tenant speaks the truth," the voice said. Naruto turned and glared at the source of this new voice. Orochimaru! But how did he get into his mindscape? "Oh, this isn't the real me," the apparition said, seemingly reading Naruto's thoughts. "You're in that cage now because I put you there. It's a seal. The seal I put on you that that fool Jiraiya released wasn't the only one I put on you that day in the forest! This was the other one," here he rapped his knuckles on the bars nearest him, "and let me tell you, there's only one being in this world that is powerful enough to break this seal, and he's right behind you!" With that, the phantom Orochimaru disappeared as if he'd never been there.

Naruto turned slowly. Sure enough, the only one behind him was the fox. "What did he mean by that?" Naruto wondered aloud.

Kyubi chuckled. **"What indeed,"** he deadpanned.

Hinata

Hinata was in shock. Naruto had said he liked people like her! This had to be a dream! But no, she could still feel the pain in her chest from where Neji had hurt her. But that would mean...Naruto actually liked her! Hinata was surprised, to say the least, that Naruto would say that after she had seen him when he was as vulnerable as he had been before.

It took a moment for Hinata to notice that Naruto was walking away, but just when she was about to take her attention from him, he froze. He seemed to be looking at the fireworks going off in the distance, but then he just...fell. Seeing him fall to the ground snapped Hinata out of her stupor. She moved, running to her blond crush as he collapsed. When she got there, she found him breathing easily, his body limp, seemingly boneless, and his consciousness gone.

Suddenly, from behind, she heard a new voice. "Hinata? Are you here?" the voice called. Kiba! She had never been so glad to hear her feral teammate's voice as she was at that exact moment.

"Kiba!" she called out. Seeing her, he ran over to where she was crouching by Naruto's unconscious form.

"What in the hell? Why is Naruto here? And why is he unconscious?" Kiba asked her. Hinata explained briefly what had happened. "So, you talked to him without fainting, then, as he was leaving, _he_ fainted? Come on, Hinata, even you have to realize that's a little far-fetched," Kiba said, winking to show he was just teasing his friend. Hinata crossed her arms and huffed at Kiba, which only made the dog-user laugh. The shy girl seemed about to say something, but her teammate waved her to silence. "All right, I'll be serious, I'm sorry, that was just too good to resist," he told her. Hinata just pouted. "Okay, you said you checked him and he's not hurt, right?" Hinata nodded to this. "Hm, then I guess we probably better get him to the hospital, we can't really leave him out here unconscious."

That said, Kiba hefted Naruto onto his shoulder. He was surprised for a moment how light the blond was; he'd been on the receiving end of the kid's attacks, and he knew he was carrying one _strong_ opponent just then. For said powerful person to be so _light_ seemed...wrong, somehow. Shaking that off, he took off toward the Hokage tower, Hinata following fast on his heels.

xxxxxx

As Hinata and Kiba were on their way to the village hospital, they saw the Third Hokage walking down the street they were following. "He must be on his way to the finals," Kiba commented, mostly to himself. "Hey, maybe he can help us out. LORD HOKAGE!" he called out.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, turned his kind, dark eyes on the two Genin. "Oh, Kiba, Hinata, what can I do for you?" he asked. As he spoke, his eyes fell on the still form of Naruto over Kiba's shoulder. "And why are you carrying Naruto?"

The two Genin quickly explained to the Hokage what had happened at the training ground. Hiruzen appeared to ponder what he'd heard a moment. "This sounds like...no, it couldn't be, could it?" he said, mostly to himself. As he spoke, he saw Hinata and Kiba looking at him, a mix of curiosity and worry on their faces. Thinking another moment, he created a Shadow Clone, which continued down the path he'd been following when the two Genin called to him. The real Hiruzen turned to them and said in an authoritative tone, "Let's get him to the hospital." The two Genin nodded, and the procession of three conscious ninja turned toward the hospital, which, thankfully, wasn't far from where they were.

Hiruzen's Clone

The clone arrived at the Kage's box and sat beside the Kazekage. "Sorry to have kept you waiting, Lord Kazekage," he said quietly.

"Not a problem, Lord Hokage," the Kazekage responded. "Still, it's a good thing the finals are being held here, for your sake, since you can't even make it here on time. A long trip would have been hard for you, even as strong as you are, given your age. Isn't it about time you choose the Fifth Hokage?"

Hiruzen laughed heartily at the Kazekage's comment, then, rising to his feet, commented, "Nonsense, I'll be here for some time to come yet." Moving to the front of the Kage's box, he spoke to the spectators. "Welcome, all, and our deepest thanks for coming to the final competition of this year's Chunin Selection Exams! We ask that no one leaves until the eight candidates who made it through the preliminary rounds have completed all of their matches. Now, everyone, enjoy!" That said, he returned to his seat.

"You said eight candidates," the Kazekage commented. "Aren't you missing one?"

On the ground, the proctor was showing the six present candidates the new match-ups for the final tournament. Neji, Shikamaru, and Gaara were all wondering about their first opponents, until Shikamaru noticed that his first opponent, Dosu, was no longer listed. He decided to speak up. "While I'm sure this is more trouble than it's worth, what's going to happen if Sasuke and Naruto don't show up?"

The proctor responded sternly, "If a candidate is not here when his name is called, he forfeits his match." Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgment of the proctor's words. He then continued to remind the candidates that the rules were the same as before, then said, "These are the opponents for the first match, Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyuga. Those two stay, the rest of you can go to the waiting area." The five candidates whose names weren't called moved, leaving only Neji standing there.

Back in the Kage box, the Kazekage was grinning widely under his mask. _"So, it seems the Uzumaki kid isn't coming. Good, good, that match would have been a waste of time, anyway. There's no way that kid could beat the Hyuga genius!"_ he thought to himself.

Hiruzen saw that only Neji was there. Turning to Raido, who had arrived shortly after Hiruzen himself and was waiting behind the Hokage's chair, he said softly, "Tell Genma to call this match. Naruto's obviously not coming."

Raido vanished in a puff of smoke. Reappearing by the proctor, Genma, he said quietly, "Call the match, the Uzumaki kid isn't coming." Genma nodded, and Raido vanished again, reappearing back in the Kage box.

Genma spoke to the crowd this time. "It seems Naruto Uzumaki isn't here, so he automatically forfeits his match. Winner, Neji Hyuga!" This announcement was met with quite a few groans and more than one boo. Surprising no one in particular, Sakura Haruno, Naruto's pink-haired teammate, didn't even seem to notice that her teammate had been dropped from the tournament. Genma raised his voice again. "All right, then, will Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara please come down here?"

Neji snorted. "Guess that kid was all talk," he said quietly. On his way out of the arena, he passed Gaara, who was on his way down. Neither Genin acknowledged the other in any way.

Gaara arrived on the ground and stood with his arms crossed. Genma called out again, "Sasuke Uchiha, get down here!"

In the Kage box, Hiruzen sighed. "Guess he inherited his sensei's lousy sense of timing," he said softly. "Raido, it looks like we have two matches in a row that will end in disqualification. Tell Genma."

"Sasuke Uchiha is disqualified?" the Kazekage asked. "Don't you think that will annoy the people who came here just to see this match? Couldn't you make allowances for them?"

Hiruzen sighed. "I cannot show favoritism, Lord Kazekage. Just as you could not show favoritism to your son, Gaara, were these exams in your own land, I cannot show it for the Uchiha boy when they are here, either," he answered, his voice firm. "Raido, tell Genma to call it."

The previous scene replayed itself as Genma disqualified Sasuke. "Okay, fine, then, I guess the first _real_ match of this tournament will be Kankuro versus Shino Aburame, so you two get down here!" Genma yelled; even he was getting frustrated with this farce by now. Kankuro would have withdrawn – his match didn't mean much, really – but he wasn't about to do that now that Gaara's match with Sasuke wouldn't happen, so he and Shino found themselves facing off on the ground of the arena. "Good, it's about time we saw a fight. Now, at last, let the final round of the Chunin Exams BEGIN!" Genma called out and leapt out of the way of the two Genin.

Hiruzen

As Hiruzen, Kiba, and Hinata arrived at the hospital, they were greeted by several odd looks and more than one hostile glare sent Naruto's way. Hiruzen released a controlled burst of Killer Intent at the sources of the glares, causing all of those people to tremble in fear. Speaking in his most authoritative tone, the Hokage said, "Get me a doctor, immediately, this boy needs immediate attention!"

Within seconds, a doctor and a gurney had appeared. Kiba set Naruto's still body on the gurney, which was wheeled away with the three ninja in hot pursuit. A nurse attempted to stop the two Genin, but Hiruzen told her they were with him, and she left them alone. Soon, Naruto was in a hospital room with three nervous ninja watching as the doctor poked and prodded at him.

After a few minutes of this, the doctor came over to the Hokage and said, his voice betraying his confusion, "I can't find a single thing wrong with this boy, Lord Hokage. I have no idea why he's unconscious or why he won't wake up, he just...is."

The Third nodded, and the doctor made his way quickly out of the room; he had other things to do. "Hinata, Kiba," Hiruzen said. His subordinates nodded, their eyes curious. "I am assigning you two a mission, effective immediately. You two are to act as bodyguards for Naruto until he has come out of his current unconscious state. Understood?" Both Genin nodded. "Good, now, I'm going to see if I can't track down my old students, Jiraiya and Tsunade, to see what they can do to help out with this." With that, the Hokage vanished in a puff of smoke. He had a lot of work to do.

Hinata

Hinata and Kiba made their way into Naruto's room. Kiba sat in one of the chairs along the wall, while Hinata made her way over to his bed and looked down at him. Neither knew when it had happened exactly, but Naruto's jacket was open and his shirt cut, leaving his chest and stomach bare. Hinata looked down in shock. There was some kind of seal on Naruto's stomach, and it was glowing! "Kiba!" she exclaimed, gesturing for him to come over.

Kiba made his way over. Hinata indicated the seal. "What the hell is that?" Kiba asked rhetorically, looking up at Hinata, who met his gaze with worried eyes.

"I think I know what it is," she said. "But it's not my place to say, really. All I know is if that's what I think it is, the way it's pulsing right now doesn't mean anything good in the best case scenario...and in the worst case scenario, it could mean the end of us all."


	2. Unexpected Circumstances

Chapter 2

Kiba was having trouble believing what he'd just heard. "Th-the end of us all? Surely, it can't be _that_ serious!" he said, trying his hardest to make light of the situation. It wasn't that he didn't believe his teammate...it was that he DID believe her, and believing made him _extremely_ nervous.

Hinata simply looked into Kiba's eyes, her own white eyes very clearly conveying what she didn't have to say: "You wanna bet?" The look sent a slight chill up Kiba's spine, and the slightly feral Genin shivered. Hinata looked away from her teammate back to her long-time crush. Reaching out, she gently brushed his hair back from his face, where it had apparently fallen in all the excitement. _"I hope you'll be okay, Naruto,"_ she thought to herself with a soft smile.

Kiba, watching this, snarled slightly. _"Why did it have to be HIM?"_ he asked himself. _"Why did she have to have a crush on the densest, goofiest guy I've ever met?"_ He couldn't decide whether he was jealous that she didn't like him or whether he just felt bad for Hinata since Naruto had no idea how she felt, so he just settled on something in between the two.

Kiba sighed and shook his head. There was really nothing for it, he knew. He took a step forward to try to comfort Hinata, but, just before he could rest a hand on her shoulder, both Genin were thrown backward by a pulse of chakra. The two came to rest sitting in two of the chairs along the wall of the room and looked up at Naruto, half-expecting to find him awake. The blond continued to slumber. "What in the world was that?" Hinata asked, half to herself, half to Kiba. Kiba just shrugged; he didn't know what it _was,_ but he did know it just proved even more just how much power Naruto had within him. It was impressive...and a little scary.

Naruto

Naruto had spent what felt like hours looking around the inside of his rather small cage, trying to find any weakness in it. He had found nothing. The entire time he'd been doing this, the fox had been watching him with a mix of morbid curiosity and absolute bewilderment. **"Why do you bother looking for a way out of there, brat?" **the fox asked at one point. **"As much as I hate that reptilian...being that was in here before, he's absolutely right, the only one who can break out of that seal is in here with you."**

Naruto sighed. He wasn't exactly pleased with his current situation, and the fox's commentary was _not_ helping. "I don't care what that bastard Orochimaru said," he told Kyubi, turning to look the fox straight in his huge red eyes. "I'll find some way out of here, and I'll do it without letting you out! I never give up, and I never go back on my word! That's my ninja way!" He glared at the fox with absolutely no fear in his eyes as he said this.

Kyubi snickered at the boy in front of him. **"You're lucky this cage is between us," **he told the blond. **"If not for it, I would have devoured you long ago...and your pathetic village with you."**

Naruto took three slow steps toward the Kyubi's cage, his eyes burning with rage. "You can threaten me all you want, you stupid fox, but I will NEVER let you lay a paw on the village!" he ground out through clenched teeth. "Even if it means I have to give myself over to the most evil force the world has ever seen, I will protect the village from any threat that comes against it, even YOU!" As he spoke, the boy let out a pulse of his chakra in what he knew was a vain effort to intimidate the fox. He had no idea that doing so would knock Hinata and Kiba off their feet.

Then something happened that no one could have predicted. The fox laughed. It sounded like some weird combination of a bark and a roar, but Naruto could tell by the look in the creature's eyes and the way the fox was rolling around as he let out the sound that the fox was laughing. Naruto folded his arms and glared at the fox, not amused. After a minute, Kyubi calmed down and gave Naruto a grin. **"You know what, brat,"** the fox said, still amused, **"I'm going to do something for you. Your determination might be foolish, and your courage may be all bravado, but you still earned this. I'm going to tell you my name."**

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Your name? Your name is Kyubi, isn't it? Oh, big prize!" he said sarcastically.

The fox snarled. **"You really think my NAME is Nine-Tails?"** he asked. **"That's just what you **_**pathetic**_** humans call me since no one can remember my true name anymore. But I'm going to tell it to you. I am Kurama."**

Naruto could somehow tell that he'd been given a truly great gift, though he would never have been able to explain _how_ he knew this exactly. He bowed to the fox, yet another thing neither he nor anyone else would have expected to happen. "It's an honor to truly make your acquaintance at long last, Kurama," he said formally. Raising himself up from his bow, he looked into the fox's eyes, and both could sense that the dynamic between them had...shifted somehow. The change was subtle, but both could sense it nonetheless. Some of the latent hostility between them had lifted.

Kurama thought about smiling at the boy's show of formality, but decided scaring the blond at that moment wouldn't have been the best idea, so he just nodded. Then a thought occurred to him. **"Boy, why do you not blame me for all the pain you've gone through in your life?"** he asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Is it your fault the villagers are uneducated morons?" he asked back.

Kurama chuckled. **"No, that would be the fault of your beloved Third Hokage,"** he said back, his tone slightly sarcastic. **"But I'm surprised you see it that way. I mean, really, if it weren't for me being in here, you probably wouldn't have been treated so badly for so many years."**

Naruto gave the fox a slight smile. "I'm guessing that's the closest thing to an apology I'll ever get from you," he said. Kurama nodded slightly, acknowledging Naruto's point. "Really, though, I know it's not your fault. Now, my parents being dead...I have to assume _that_ is your fault, somehow or another, and believe me, I'm nowhere near forgiving you for that one."

Kurama gave out a sigh. **"I doubt it'll do much good, but I think this is a good time to tell you what **_**really**_** happened the night you were born,"** he said. Naruto looked into the fox's red eyes, an eyebrow lifted in curiosity.

Hiruzen

The Hokage had to raise an eyebrow at what he saw when he entered Naruto's hospital room. He had been coming to check up on the blond, but what he saw was almost too cute to interrupt. Hinata had apparently pulled a chair up next to the boy's bed, and she was even now sitting there, Naruto's hand gently held in one of hers as she caressed it with the other. Hiruzen smiled and shook his head, then cleared his throat. Hinata let out a squeak and leapt from her chair, blushing a deep red as she turned to greet the Hokage. "Y-Yes, Lord Hokage?" she said.

Hiruzen chuckled. "Don't worry, Hinata, I'm glad he's finally got someone who will care for him," he said. Hinata smiled, though her blush persisted. "Anyway, I came to check up on Naruto and to let you and Kiba know I'm going to have Inoichi and Ino Yamanaka come and take a look at him later today."

"Of course, Lord Hokage," Hinata replied, bowing. "But do you really have to pull them away from the Finals just for this?"

Hiruzen was slightly surprised that he'd been caught out by a Genin of all things, but he decided to tell Hinata _part_ of his reasoning at least. "Due to Naruto's...special circumstances, his well-being is a matter of grave importance for the whole village," he said. "And if those circumstances have anything to do with his current state, it is of utmost importance that we have him examined immediately."

Hinata turned to her teammate, who was leaning back in his chair and listening to the two converse; not sure what he could add, Kiba had been silent so far. "Kiba, would you mind giving the Hokage and me a moment in private?" she asked.

Kiba was about to refuse, but then he saw the look in Hinata's eyes. She was pleading with him silently to do this for her. "Okay, sure," he said, giving her a slight smile. "But just so you know, it doesn't matter to me what secret the knucklehead has; he's a comrade and a friend, and nothing is going to change that."

Hiruzen had to smile upon hearing that. "Kiba, if you're truly sincere in saying that, you're welcome to stay," he said kindly. "Just know that anything you hear about him in this room stays in this room and is an S-ranked secret. Telling it to anyone who does not already know is punishable by death."

Kiba gulped slightly, but he nodded. "I meant what I said," he told both Hiruzen and Hinata. "He's my friend, and nothing I learn here will change that. As for the other...I know how to keep my mouth shut."

Hiruzen smiled. "In case you're wondering, Kiba, your mother and sister already know about this," he said. "So if you feel the need to discuss it with them, feel free." Kiba nodded and waited to see what he would learn about his friend and rival.

Hinata smiled at Kiba, her eyes grateful for her teammate's words. "I already know, too," she said, surprising the dark-haired boy. "I found out at the same time Naruto did."

Hiruzen smiled kindly. "Go ahead, Hinata, what is it you wanted to say?" he asked.

Hinata moved around to the far side of Naruto's bed and spread open his shirt, which she had closed after she and Kiba noticed the seal on Naruto's stomach earlier. She indicated the seal and told the Hokage, "This isn't Naruto's normal seal, I'm sure of it."

Kiba came closer and looked at the seal, curious. "And how would you know that, Hinata?" he asked her teasingly. Hinata blushed.

"I've had her monitoring the seal ever since she found out about what's in it," Hiruzen told Kiba. "Her Byakugan has been most helpful...and she's right, that isn't his normal seal," he added after briefly inspecting the seal himself.

Kiba looked at it a bit closer, and this time he noticed that there seemed to be not one, but two seals on the boy's stomach. Tracing one finger over the outer one, which was glowing, he conjectured, "I'm guessing that this one is what's causing him to be like he is right now." Hiruzen and Hinata both nodded. Then, tracing over the inner, black seal, he asked, "But then...what's this?"

Hiruzen smiled proudly at his Genin. "That seal, Kiba, is the S-rank secret I mentioned before. That seal contains the Nine-tailed Fox, Kyubi no Kitsune," he said bluntly.

Kiba pulled back in shock. "The Kyubi?" he said, confused. "But we were taught that the Fourth Hokage killed him!"

Hiruzen nodded. "The deception was necessary. I declared Naruto's jinchuriki status an S-rank secret in the hope that he would have a chance at a normal life," he explained. "But the truth is, even the Fourth couldn't kill the Kyubi. No one can kill a tailed beast. They're technically just huge masses of sentient chakra to begin with, so, in a sense, they're not really 'alive' in the first place. As such, the only way to defeat them is to seal them, as the Fourth did. He sealed the fox into Naruto here the very night Naruto was born, giving his own life in the process."

Kiba thought about that a minute. "So that's why everyone calls Naruto a monster and demon and all that," he said. Hinata and Hiruzen nodded again. "Way to go with trying to give him a 'normal' life there, Lord Hokage," he said slightly sarcastically. Hiruzen nodded, acknowledging his shame. Then, Kiba turned to Hinata. "How did you come to find out about this, Hinata?"

Hinata sighed; she knew she'd have to explain this someday, but she'd never thought the first one she'd tell would be Kiba. "You remember when we all took our Genin Exams, Naruto failed, right?" she began. Kiba nodded. "Well, after that, Mizuki-sensei tricked Naruto into stealing the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing. I'm sure you heard something about that, too." Kiba nodded again; he hadn't heard the part about Mizuki, but he had heard that Naruto took the scroll. "By then, I had gotten into the habit of...watching him sometimes, and I was there that night when he opened the scroll and trained until he had learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu. After that, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei showed up. Mizuki-sensei tried to take the scroll for himself, and Iruka-sensei protected Naruto...but he couldn't protect Naruto from Mizuki-sensei's words." Her face contorted in sadness as she remembered exactly what Mizuki had said that night. "Mizuki-sensei told Naruto that the fox had been sealed into him, but he claimed that Naruto had been taken over by the fox and _was_ the fox now. Not going to him to comfort him that night was the hardest thing I've ever done," Hinata finished.

Kiba didn't say anything for a minute, processing what Hinata had said. "That's not true, though, is it?" he asked. "Naruto's...not the fox, is he?"

Instead of answering, Hiruzen pulled out a scroll. "Do either of you have a kunai?" he asked. Kiba pulled one out and passed it to the Hokage, a curious look on his face. Hiruzen proceeded to seal the kunai into the scroll. "Is this now a kunai?" he asked. Kiba shook his head. Hiruzen simply handed Kiba the scroll.

Kiba thought about what had just happened, then smiled. "I see what you mean," he said after a minute. "That was a stupid question, wasn't it?"

Hiruzen chuckled. "It's a question I wish more people would ask rather than simply assuming the answer," he said. Sighing, he added, "I also wish more people could understand that Naruto really is the greatest hero this village has ever had."

Hinata and Kiba both looked at the Hokage in surprise at this. "How so?" Kiba asked.

"Well, you both know that the Kyubi had been attacking our village," Hiruzen replied. "And that the Fourth Hokage sealed the creature into Naruto. What you may not have realized, though, is that, by containing the fox within his tiny body, and keeping it there to this day, Naruto not only saved the village, he has kept it safe with every breath he has taken for over twelve years now."

Hinata turned to Naruto and smiled. "I always knew he was a hero," she said simply.

Kiba rested a hand on Hinata's shoulder and teased, "I know he's always been _your_ hero, I just never realized he was mine, too."

Hinata smiled at Kiba, then took Naruto's hand in hers gently and began caressing it again. "Please come back to me, Naruto," she whispered.

Hiruzen's Clone

The Finals had been progressing smoothly so far. Shino and Kankuro had fought for a long while, Shino eventually triumphing, and Shikamaru had spent the past three hours seemingly wasting time while he and Temari fought. The Kazekage asked Hiruzen's clone, "Why are you not calling this match? It's clear that your ninja there has no chance of beating Temari at all."

Hiruzen chuckled. "You may yet be surprised, Lord Kazekage," he said simply. "There's more to Shikamaru than you might think."

The Kazekage hissed quietly under his mask. _"That may be so," _he thought to himself, _"but I don't really care about this match, it's _Gaara's_ fight that really matters!"_

As he thought this, everyone got a shock as Shikamaru finally caught Temari in his Shadow Possession Jutsu. He had stretched his shadow all the way around the arena, through the trees that grew near the wall, until it came at Temari from behind. She never saw it coming. Shikamaru then used his jutsu to make Temari pick up her fan and close it. Then, to the audience's amusement, he made her beat herself up with it. Within moments, Temari was unconscious, and Shikamaru was declared the winner. He sighed. "That was a pain," he said. "I barely had enough chakra to hold her that long."

The Kazekage snarled. _"Oh, my, that's unfortunate," _he thought. _"I hope she wakes up in time to do her part in our plan."_

From the floor of the arena, the proctor called out, "This concludes the first round of the Finals! Due to the first two matches not putting a strain on the combatants, we will move directly to the second round. Neji Hyuga and Gaara, please come down here!" The two shinobi made their way to the ground, their movements and attitudes somehow similar. Neither acknowledged the other. When they had both arrived, the proctor said, "Let the second round of the Chunin Selection Tournament...BEGIN!" and jumped out of the combatants' way.

Naruto

Naruto sighed. "If that's really true," he said to Kurama once the story was complete, "I really can't blame you for what happened. Thank you for telling me."

Kurama nodded. **"You deserve to know the truth,"** he said. **"I'm just glad you believed me. I mean, it's not like you don't have reason to distrust me."**

Naruto shook his head. "Truth is truth, regardless of the source," he said simply.

Kurama looked at the blond in surprise. **"You know, kid, there's a lot more to you than you show the outside world, isn't there?"**

Naruto chuckled. "You just now figured that out?" he asked.

Kurama raised one eyebrow at Naruto. **"Would **_**you**_** take the time to get to know someone who has deprived you of your freedom from the moment he was born?"** he asked.

Naruto thought about that a minute. "Good point," he responded.

Kurama sighed. **"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I kinda wish there was some way I could help you get out of this fix," **he said. He thought a moment, then added, **"Well, I guess there is a way...but I don't think either of us would want to take that route."**

Naruto looked up at him. "Well, that would depend on what it was," he said.

Kurama sighed again, rolling his eyes. **"If we take that route, the best we can hope for is that your mind would be forever altered, possibly destroyed," **he said.

Naruto gulped. "And at worst?" he asked somewhat nervously.

The fox raised an eyebrow at the blond, somewhat surprised he'd even asked that. Nonetheless, he had to admit, the boy deserved to know what he'd be risking if they tried what the fox had thought of, so he replied, **"If we tried to do what I just thought of and something went wrong, you would either lose your mind entirely...or die."**


	3. Awakening

A/N: Yeah, I'm finally back. I know it's been a while since I updated anything, but there's really nothing I could do about that. I hope you all enjoy my return chapter!

Chapter 3

Naruto gasped at that. "I might lose my mind? Or even die?" he asked. "Well, if it did work, what would be the result? And what is your idea, anyway?"

Kurama looked Naruto up and down briefly, assessing how serious the boy was. **"You're serious?"** the fox asked. Naruto nodded determinedly. **"Well, the idea I had is that I could pour every ounce of my chakra into you and give you complete control over it so that you could get out of that cage. The only way I could do that is to essentially fuse myself with you. The result would be that you would have total control over every ounce of my power, but I honestly have no idea how having that much power within you would affect your body or mind."**

Naruto thought that over for a while. He didn't see any other options, really, so eventually, he said, "All right. Let's do it. I promise I will always use your power in a way that would make you proud."

Kurama gave Naruto a nod and chuckled. **"You'll have to give me a while to prepare. The jutsu I'll have to cast takes a lot of chakra, and I need to get it all together,"** the fox said, then turned around and curled into a ball on the "floor".

Naruto sat down cross-legged to wait. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world for him, but he knew there wasn't a choice but for him to simply be patient...and so he did his best to be so.

Neji

Neji jumped away from Gaara, panting heavily. This fight was not going the way he thought it would at all. He had expected this foreign Genin to stand no chance against him. After all, he came from the most powerful clan in the most powerful of the five great nations, so how could this...boy possibly stand up to him? And yet, Neji hadn't landed even a single blow on the redhead. "What are you?!" Neji yelled at the boy in frustration.

Gaara grinned manically from within an orb of sand. "I don't even control the sand, you know. It automatically defends me from all attacks. I've never felt pain in my life because of it," he said.

Neji activated his Byakugan and saw that the boy wasn't lying. The chakra he was directly controlling was clearly different from the chakra controlling the sand that was defending him. Then Neji noticed something else and grinned. _"So, that's his weakness,"_ he thought to himself and moved again.

Hiruzen's clone

The Kazekage was watching the battle between the Hyuga genius and the Sand's jinchuriki with rapt interest. _"Any minute now,"_ he kept thinking. _"Any minute now, Gaara will change, and the _real_ battle will start."_

Hiruzen's Shadow Clone was watching the Kazekage closely. He was beginning to suspect there was something...not quite right about the man sitting next to him. As they watched, Neji, Byakugan flaring, finally managed to sneak one hand through a hole in the sand orb around Gaara and hit the boy's body. _"I'm not sure how he did that, but he's certainly showing there's a good reason the Hyuga consider him a genius,"_ the clone thought.

Upon hearing the cry of pain and rage from within the sand orb, the Kazekage leaned forward and watched even more raptly as the orb suddenly sprouted a giant...sand arm? Hiruzen's clone raised an eyebrow at this. He certainly hadn't been expecting _that._ Once the arm withdrew, the sand orb itself collapsed, revealing Gaara holding onto both sides of his head and shrieking. This was the last of the boy the Clone would see, however, as the Kage box was suddenly filled with thick, acrid smoke. The Kazekage grabbed hold of the Hokage and both vanished from the box and reappeared atop a nearby building. "What is the meaning of this, Lord Kazekage?" the Hokage asked the man who was now standing behind him with a kunai to his throat.

"I'm just trying to start a war, that's all," the Kazekage replied, chuckling. "I know some people view a windmill as a beautiful thing, but to me, as it stands without motion, such a thing is truly boring. I simply desire to be the force that sets the world into motion."

"Well, it's really too bad for you, but you won't be given the chance to do that," the Hokage replied before vanishing into a cloud of smoke. He had recognized that voice, and that was all he really needed to know.

The Kazekage looked at the spot where his former teacher had been in surprise. "Well, Sarutobi-sensei," he said. "I didn't think you'd be smart enough to send a Shadow Clone in your place. Well played, sensei."

Gaara

Once he had been revealed from within his orb, Gaara's siblings ran to where he was, grabbed him, and ran to get him outside the village as fast as possible. After they made it outside, the redhead suddenly threw them both off him and fell to a tree branch, where he quickly began to gather sand to him, which took on the shape of a giant tanuki, with Gaara himself sticking out of the beast's forehead.

Gaara put his hands together and was just gathering his chakra to cast a jutsu that everyone in the Sand Village was deathly terrified of when a sudden explosive wave of chakra washed over him, distracting him for just a moment. That single moment of distraction would change the entire course of the invasion...and Gaara's life.

Hinata

Hinata had had to leave Naruto alone for a few minutes. She hated to do it, but Kiba had been called away to his clan's home on urgent business, and Hinata had had to answer the call of nature. She wasn't gone long, but she still felt like she was abandoning the blond in his time of need, which felt not only like a betrayal of him but also like a dereliction of duty since she had been given a _mission_ to watch over him. Still, she hadn't had a choice.

As she was about to return to the room, Hinata was suddenly knocked away from Naruto's room's door and slammed into the wall behind her by a massive wave of chakra. Upon entering the room a moment later, she found that Naruto was gone, and there was a giant hole where the far wall of his room used to be. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata found that Naruto was running through the village at impossible speeds. She also saw that Naruto was...different from how he used to be. In that moment, Hinata made an impossible choice.

Naruto's mindscape

It had seemed like a small eternity since the fox curled up into a ball, but eventually he turned around and faced the blond boy who was still outside his cage. **"I'm ready now,"** the fox said. **"Are you ready, Naruto?"**

It was not lost on Naruto that the fox had changed his manner of addressing his jailer. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose," Naruto replied. "What do I need to do?"

"**You just have to come up here and remove this seal from between us. I'll do the rest,"** the fox said back.

"If you dare to betray me, I will see to it you pay for anything you do, even if I have to haunt you to the ends of the earth," Naruto said, glaring at the fox. Kurama just nodded. "Okay, but I'll need some help getting up there." Red chakra spilled through the gate and lifted Naruto up to the paper that represented the seal. Naruto grabbed it, gave the fox one more warning glare, then ripped it off.

Kurama made his equivalent of a hand sign and said, **"Biju-Human Fusion Jutsu!"** As he spoke, the red chakra that was still in contact with Naruto sank into the boy's skin, followed over the next few moments by the entirety of the fox. Naruto shrieked in pain as he felt his body being altered by the sheer power he was being forced to contain.

Naruto, Awake

Upon awaking from his seal-induced coma, Naruto unintentionally sent out a giant wave of chakra. He wasn't used to containing so much, so his body had to get rid of some of it for at least a moment, to allow his chakra network to get used to the pressure. Looking at himself, Naruto came to a realization. _"The village will never be able to accept me like this,"_ he thought to himself. Looking around, he found a black cloak laying on the bed next to his. He grabbed it and threw it around himself, lifting the cloak's hood over his head as he did. He was pleased to find it covered every inch of him, from head to toe. _"And now to get out of here,"_ he thought. Turning, he leaped through the wall, leaving behind the giant hole Hinata would find moments later.

As Naruto was exiting the hospital, he discovered there was a giant sand monster threatening to attack the village, along with a few snakes much like the one he saw back in the Forest of Death. Rushing the sand monster, the blond decked Gaara, who he found sticking from its forehead, knocking the Sand jinchuriki unconscious in a single blow, then turned his attention to the snakes around the village walls. Within moments, three of the snakes had been turned into a giant bloody mess, which was slowly soaking into the ground. The fourth and final snake, Naruto saw, was being fought by Jiraiya and one of his toads, so the blond former jinchuriki turned his back on the only home he had ever known and bolted off into the forest, heading north.

Hidden Leaf

Seeing Gaara's transformation and three of his snakes so easily defeated, the fake Kazekage realized that his invasion was an abject failure. Deciding to cut his losses while he still could, the man turned and fled the village he had once called home, heading back for his base, the village he called Hidden Sound.

He never even noticed that he had left behind his Sound Four or that Kabuto was captured by Asuma Sarutobi. After he left, the Sand quickly surrendered to the Leaf. Within days, the true fate of the Kazekage was discovered, and the Sand shinobi were allowed to return to their home to set about recovering from the loss of their Kage. Gaara, meanwhile, had developed an odd obsession with the shinobi who had defeated him so perfunctorily. "I must meet this shinobi," Gaara would often say. "I must meet him and ask him what the source of his power is. I must know how it is that anyone could become so powerful as to defeat me so easily."

Whenever he said this, the look in his eye would cause even his siblings to give Gaara a wide berth...although they had also noticed a change in the boy. He seemed less obsessed with killing everything and more...curious. They weren't sure what to make of the change, but it didn't seem like a bad thing at any rate, so they tried to encourage him to search for his quarry. The result of all this was that the Sand trio had yet to return to their village. Gaara was determined to begin his search as soon as possible, and he knew the boy was a Leaf shinobi, so he had set his mind on starting there.

Hiruzen had been informed that Naruto and Hinata had both vanished from the village when Kiba returned to Naruto's room and found them both gone and a huge hole in the wall. He'd followed Hinata's scent to the wall of the village before rushing to report this to the Hokage. "Well, at least Naruto's awake," Hiruzen said. "But where in the world are they going?" Thinking a moment, he scrawled a message and handed it to Kiba. "Deliver this to Anko Mitarashi, please," he said to the Genin. Kiba nodded and left to find the creepy proctor.

Naruto

Naruto finally stopped to rest a moment when he reached a valley which had a giant waterfall running between a statue of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and a man who had to be Madara Uchiha. He didn't know it, but he was standing in the Valley of the End. As he sat on Hashirama's hand to catch his breath, another figure appeared standing atop Madara's. Naruto was immediately standing and in a defensive pose, ready for a fight. Looking for a moment, however, he discovered that the figure was Hinata.

"Hinata? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm coming with you," Hinata responded confidently. "I won't take no for an answer, so don't bother. If you're leaving the village, there's nothing left there for me, so I have to come with you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You don't need to come with me, Hinata," he said. "And trust me, you're better off staying as far away from me as you can." Hinata didn't move, she simply stared at Naruto as if defying him to scare her off.

Naruto raised a hand in front of himself, the cloak falling down his arm to reveal fingernails that had sharpened somewhat. They weren't quite claws, but they weren't exactly fingernails anymore, either. Hinata didn't move. Naruto concentrated a moment, and a sphere of chakra appeared above one of his fingers. The chakra was some odd combination of blue, red, and black. After a moment, Naruto made a flicking motion and the orb flew past Hinata's face, missing the girl's ear by mere millimeters. It was so close, in fact, that Hinata's hair was thrown up by the wind of the thing passing by her. The orb slammed into the statue behind her, and nothing happened for a moment.

After that moment of total silence, the Valley of the End began to glow as bright as the noonday sun in the explosion of chakra that occurred. The top third of the statue of Madara Uchiha was turned into so much rubble by the Biju bomb that Naruto had thrown. Hinata's gaze never left Naruto. Even the giant explosion going off a mere twenty feet behind her didn't faze her.

"Do you really want to be around someone who contains a force that powerful?" Naruto asked. "I'm not even sure I can completely control my power anymore."

Hinata gave Naruto a small smile. "I'm coming with you, Naruto. Deal with it," she said simply.

Naruto's purple eyes glinted with a single tear. _"She still wants to come with me,"_ he thought to himself. "All right, Hinata," he said aloud. "Let's go." That said, the two headed out of the valley, still headed away from their old village. Neither of them was entirely sure where they were going, but they knew they would find out together.

Anko

Meanwhile, back in the Hidden Leaf Village, Kiba had finally found Anko and passed the scroll off to her. After reading it, Anko turned to Kiba and asked, "Are you aware of the contents of this?"

Kiba shook his head, and Anko passed him the scroll. After reading it, Kiba looked at Anko in surprise. "He's sending you after them?"

Anko chuckled. "Read it again, brat," she said. "He's sending _us_ after them."

Kiba read the scroll again. Sure enough, it did say that Anko was supposed to take him along with her as she went to find Naruto and Hinata. _"Well, I guess that does make sense,"_ he thought. _"I am one of the best trackers around, and I already know both of their scents."_ Turning to Anko again, he asked, "Is there anything I should bring with me?"

Anko thought about that, then answered, "Just your normal mission gear. I don't think there should be anything too dangerous for us to deal with out there. When can you be ready to leave?"

Kiba grinned ferally. "If all I need is my normal mission gear, I'm ready now," he said, patting the pouch on his belt. "All my mission gear is in here, and of course Akamaru is always with me."

"Okay, kid," Anko said back, privately proud of the Genin for being so prepared. "Let's go tell the Hokage we'll take the mission and get out there on the road. We have comrades to find."

xxxxxx

Anko and Kiba grinned at one another as they looked out over the road leading out of the Hidden Leaf Village. "You ready for this, kid?" Anko asked.

Kiba chuckled. "I was born ready," he said back.

"All right then. Let's go," the snake-charmer said. With that, the two of them departed their home, bound and determined to find their comrades. Neither of them had any idea that this would be the biggest adventure of their lives.

A/N: Yeah, I know this is a bit of a shorter chapter, and that sucks after being gone so long, but this seemed like the perfect place to end this one, so yeah. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I promise the next chapter won't take as long as this one did.


	4. New Circumstances

Chapter 4

Naruto sighed. He had been running full-tilt before the Valley of the End, but now, with Hinata with him, he just couldn't do that. If he did, there was no way she could ever keep up. Hinata heard him sigh and said, "I'm sorry I'm slowing you down, Naruto."

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. Hinata almost bumped into him he stopped so suddenly. "It's okay, Hinata," he said after a moment. "Let's set up camp here." It was at this point that the two Genin realized they had both neglected to bring along any real supplies when they left the village. "Or not," Naruto said after a moment.

Hinata smiled kindly. "We'll just have to improvise," she said, then she set to work leaping up into the nearby trees and pulling down branches, which she began to form into a lean-to. Naruto, seeing what she was up to, quickly joined in. Unfortunately, for every branch he managed to set into place without trouble, his new claws would rip apart one or his new strength would break one. Hinata could tell Naruto was getting more and more frustrated with this, so she eventually said, "Why don't you see about finding us something to eat, Naruto? I'll finish up here."

Naruto smiled. He knew Hinata was trying to distract him from his annoyance at being so useless in the camp set-up process, but he was entirely willing to let it work. "Yeah, I'm sure I can rustle up something," he said and vanished into the woods.

Naruto soon discovered that his senses weren't what they used to be. In fact, all of them except for his sight had been wildly enhanced. He could hear every single rustle of a leaf and smell a bird from a mile away. It was honestly a bit overwhelming. Using his new senses, however, he soon found a burrow of rabbits. In his efforts to flush them out, he ended up ripping the entire burrow out of the ground with a chakra arm he could only just control. In his efforts to not drop it, though, he accidentally crushed it...and the rabbits within it. _"Well, so much for them being dinner," _he thought cynically.

Eventually, Naruto managed to catch a wild turkey without turning it to mush. After mercifully killing it, he plucked and skinned the bird as best he could, then returned with it to the campsite. _"Maybe having these crazy senses isn't all bad,"_ he thought as he used his hearing to always know where Hinata was. The slight sounds of her breaking branches and building up a fire pit were as loud to him as trumpets.

Hinata smiled when she saw Naruto returning with the large bird. _"That will feed us for days,"_ she thought happily. Thinking a moment, she asked Naruto, "Can you use your chakra to start a fire?"

Naruto considered this. "I'm not sure, maybe I can now," he said. Holding out a hand toward where Hinata had built their fire pit, he concentrated his chakra on the pile of sticks there. After a moment, sure enough, the chakra ignited the sticks, and soon they had a happily burning campfire. "Well, that's new," Naruto mused.

Hinata giggled slightly at Naruto's reaction. "You'll probably have all kinds of new powers now that you've fused with the fox," she said calmly.

Naruto stiffened. "How did you know about that, Hinata?" he asked her, his voice betraying pure, unadulterated shock.

"I saw you leaving the village with my Byakugan," she said back, her eyes focused on the turkey as she spun it over the fire. "It can see right through your cloak, so I knew you'd changed. I didn't know for sure what had happened, but I guessed it was that."

"And you still followed me?" Naruto asked. Hinata nodded. "Why? How can you accept me when you know I really am what the villagers have always thought now? I mean...I am the fox now, really."

Hinata wheeled and looked directly into Naruto's eyes. The firelight allowed her to see that they were a swimming mixture of red, blue, and purple. Hinata got a slight chill from this, but it wasn't an unpleasant experience. "You are not the fox, Naruto," she said back. "Even if you do have every ounce of power the fox had, you aren't him. You're still you, and you always will be."

Naruto was about to respond to this when he suddenly heard a voice within his head. _**"She's right, you know,"**_ the voice said.

Anko

Anko had been pleasantly surprised to find that Kiba was a very adept tracker. She knew he was an Inuzuka, but she wasn't expecting one so young to be so adept at his clan's craft. "How long have you been doing this, brat?" she asked as they jumped from branch to branch.

"Ever since I got Akamaru here, about three years ago," Kiba answered immediately. "I've been training to channel chakra to my nose longer than that, but I've been tracking as long as I've had him."

"You're very good for one your age," Anko said. Kiba blushed slightly at the praise. "I do have to wonder how you know what scent to follow, though."

"Hinata's my teammate. I know her scent anywhere. And I fought Naruto in the preliminaries, so I learned his scent then," he said, then paused. "His has...changed somehow, but I still recognize it."

Anko was still considering this when the two entered the Valley of the End. Looking around at the sheer destruction that lay before them, Anko and Kiba asked one another in shock and more than a little fear, "What in the world happened here?"

Hiruzen

Hiruzen was sorting through some paperwork when five Jonin entered his office. Assembling themselves before his desk were Might Guy, Kakashi Hatake, Ibiki Morino, Asuma Sarutobi, and Kurenai Yuhi. Raising an eyebrow at the rather...eclectic group, Hiruzen asked, "What can I do for you all?"

It was Guy who responded first, surprising no one. "I am here to inquire after my most youthful student, Rock Lee!" he almost yelled. "I am also here to ask about that huge pulse of chakra we all felt during the Chunin Exam Finals," he added, his voice much more subdued.

Ibiki spoke up next. "I have prepared a report for you regarding the information I extracted from Kabuto Yakushi," he said simply. "And of course I'm also curious about that chakra pulse."

"I came to inquire of you whether any of my students had been promoted to Chunin," Hiruzen's son, Asuma, said next. "And the chakra pulse," he added. Asuma never was one to waste words.

Kurenai spoke up next. "I came to ask you if you've seen my student, Hinata Hyuga," she said. Everyone in the room noted silently that she seemed to have no interest whatsoever in the mysterious chakra pulse.

"And I am here about my own students," Kakashi said. "I understand why Sasuke was disqualified from the finals, but what in the world happened with Naruto? I can't imagine he would just not show up." He paused a moment, then added, "And I too am curious about that pulse."

Hiruzen chuckled. "Well, it seems you're all here about the same thing, in one sense or another. Let me first address your individual concerns before I address the shared one. Guy, I have sent out messenger monkeys to find Tsunade. I am recalling her so that she may work on your student. If anyone can help Lee, she can," he said first. Guy nodded, his eyes hopeful. "I'll take your report in regards to Kabuto later, Ibiki, unless you have a written copy of it." Ibiki stepped forward and handed the Hokage a stack of paper. "Okay, that's that then, I'll get to that soon. Yes, Asuma, Shikamaru will be promoted. Incidentally, Kurenai, your student, Shino, is also being promoted to Chunin. His fight with Kankuro of the Sand showed he is more than ready for this." He pulled out two Chunin vests and tossed them to the Jonin in question. "You may present these to your students whenever you feel the time is right. Kurenai, your concern is inextricably tied into the concern shared by all your fellow Jonin, so I'll get to that in a minute. And Kakashi...your student _is_ the concern shared by all of you."

At this, the five Jonin all looked shocked. After a moment, Kakashi asked, "What do you mean, Lord Hokage?"

"Well, Naruto was the source of that chakra pulse you all felt," the Third replied simply. "I'm not sure exactly what happened that caused the pulse, but I know it came from Naruto." That said, the Hokage laid out before his ninja everything he knew about what had happened to Naruto. "And when he left the village, apparently Hinata followed him. Kiba said he traced both their scents to the wall of the village, and neither of them stopped there." He stopped to let them all come to grips with that, then added, "As such, I have sent Kiba and Anko Mitarashi to find the two of them."

It was Kakashi who spoke up first. "Why send Anko?" he asked.

"Given the direction they were going, I have reason to believe Naruto and Hinata will end up in the Land of Rice Paddies, which is where Orochimaru has his base, if I'm not mistaken. They could run into resistance wielding the curse mark, so having someone there with knowledge of the mark and how to fight against it would be beneficial," Hiruzen responded. The five Jonin nodded. They had to grant their leader's point there.

"What should we do, then?" Asuma asked.

Hiruzen thought about that for a moment, then turned to Ibiki. "Did you find out anything in regards to Orochimaru or the curse mark from Kabuto?" he asked.

"Not really," Ibiki said. "He told us the location of a couple of the snake's bases, but that's about it. Everything else he told us, we already knew."

Hiruzen nodded. "Was one of the bases in the Land of Rice Paddies?" he asked after a moment. Ibiki nodded. "Kakashi, you will study the location of this base, and then you will depart for there immediately. If you encounter Anko and Kiba or Naruto and Hinata, you will provide any assistance necessary and then attempt to return them all to the village as soon as possible. Go." Kakashi nodded and vanished in a cloud of smoke. "Guy, you will stay with your student. He needs you more than Naruto or Hinata do." Guy nodded and vanished as well. Hiruzen smiled at the man's antics. "Asuma, Kurenai, you two have students to bring up to speed on their new circumstances. Once that's done, bring your teams back here, and I'll determine what to have you all do at that time." The two nodded and walked out the door of the office. "As for you, Ibiki," Hiruzen said. Ibiki nodded. "Give me your full report on the interrogation of Kabuto Yakushi now."

Tsunade

Tsunade, Sannin of the Leaf, Slug Princess, and Legendary Sucker, was leaving the latest in her string of gambling dens. Her assistant, Shizune, was following her, carrying Tonton, Tsunade's pet pig. "Oh, Lady Tsunade, let's stop while we still can," Shizune pleaded. "If you don't stop losing money like this, you're going to get into some serious trouble."

Tsunade was about to respond when a wet SPLAT was heard. Looking down at the ground, Tsunade found a small monkey sitting in a puddle at her feet. He held up a scroll to her. Taking the scroll, Tsunade read for a few moments, then wrote a response on the same scroll and handed it back. The monkey vanished in a cloud of smoke. Turning to Shizune, Tsunade said, "We've been recalled to the Hidden Leaf Village. It seems my medical expertise is needed."

"I thought you swore you'd never go back there," Shizune said, trying to hide her glee at returning to their long-left home.

"I did, but Sarutobi-sensei just told me that if I don't come back, he'll have no choice but to declare me a rogue ninja. As much as I hate the village, I'm still loyal to it, so...I have no choice, really."

With that, the two kunoichi set out on the road that would lead them back to the village. Neither of them could have predicted what they would find when they got there.

Jiraiya

The infamous perverted Toad Sage of the Hidden Leaf Village giggled like a schoolgirl as he looked through a busted-out knot in the fence surrounding the bathhouse of some out-of-the-way village that no one who didn't live there would even recognize or remember. He was being treated to quite the view just then. Unfortunately, for him anyway, as he watched, a small monkey suddenly fell into the bathhouse with a loud SPLAT. All the women the perverted old man had been watching leapt up, screamed, and ran out of the bath. _"Really, Sensei?"_ he thought. _"You had to send a monkey to find me _now?_ Really?"_

Sighing in frustration, the Sage moved back from the fence as the monkey leapt over it. The monkey held out a scroll to Jiraiya. Taking it, the white-haired man read the contents. It didn't take long. All it said was, "Naruto left." Jiraiya quickly scrawled a response and handed the scroll back. He then bit his thumb and summoned a large toad as the monkey vanished in a cloud of smoke. _"In retrospect,"_ Jiraiya thought to himself as the toad leapt into the air, carrying him toward the Hidden Leaf Village. _"I really can't blame Sensei for sending the monkey. This is urgent!"_

Ibiki

Ibiki sighed as he made his way back to his office. It had taken him several hours to apprise the Hokage of everything he had learned from Kabuto, and now he was exhausted. Unfortunately for him, when he got back to his office, he found a large stack of new papers sitting there. _"What in the world is this?"_ he wondered, sitting down. Looking over the first page, he discovered it was a new report regarding information that had been uncovered from within Kabuto's psyche while he was meeting with the Hokage. The report was signed "Inoichi Yamanaka". As he read the report, Ibiki's eyes got wider and wider. Once he finished, he all but leapt to his feet. He had to get this information to the Hokage immediately. If he didn't, as many as five of his comrades could be in grave danger!

Naruto

At the same time that Ibiki was bolting toward the Hokage's office, Naruto and Hinata were awaking to find that it was late in the night. That really wasn't too surprising, given when they had left the village and how far they had run before resting, and it was advantageous besides. It would be far safer for them to travel by night than by day just now. Getting up, the two broke down their lean-to and managed to pack it up in such a way that it was portable and could be reconstructed later. Burying the remains of their fire, the two left their campsite and continued on their northward path. After a short time, they exited the forest and came upon a wide clearing. Standing in the middle of that clearing was a man neither of them had ever set eyes on before, but they could instantly tell he was dangerous.

The man had shoulder-length white hair which bore an odd zigzag part down the middle, green eyes, and two strange red dots on his forehead. He wore a lavender long-sleeved zip-up shirt, black pants that ended at his knees, and bandages around his ankles. Two locks of his silvery hair were wrapped up in some kind of tube-like hair ornaments. The thing that stuck out most to Naruto, however, was the large purple bow tied around the man's waist. Dropping into a defensive stance, Naruto growled out, "Orochimaru."

"Not quite," the man replied. "But you're not far off. I am a follower of Lord Orochimaru. And you will go no further toward his home. I am Kimimaro, and I will stop you here!"

A/N: Dun dun DUN! I know, my cliffhangers get more and more evil, don't they? I hope this one brings everyone back for the next chapter! Also, sorry this one is a little on the short side, it's pretty much just a set-up chapter. Next chapter, we'll get into the action again.


	5. Noisy Assault

Chapter 5

Naruto glared at Kimimaro. "You can't stop us, you know," he said, his purple eyes flashing with annoyance. "I am bound for Orochimaru's village, and I will take him down for doing this to me."

Kimimaro didn't respond. Instead, he held out a hand, and, to Naruto and Hinata's shock, a bone grew out of his palm and formed itself into a sword, which the man wrapped a hand around and took up a defensive pose. "That, I cannot permit. I will lay down my life so that Lord Orochimaru may live," he said simply. With that, the man moved.

As Kimimaro charged at Naruto, the blond held out one hand and formed a Tailed Beast Bomb. Surprising Kimimaro, however, rather than throwing it at the man in front of him, Naruto flicked it off in a seemingly random direction. The explosion that resulted was...impressive, to say the least. "Why did you do that?" Kimimaro asked, his voice and eyes full of confusion.

Naruto grinned ferally. "Oh, sorry about that. I just had to swat a bothersome fly," he said back.

Kimimaro shrugged that off as some weird madness his enemy was suffering and charged again. He swung his sword hard and fast. To his shock, however, when it hit the cloak of his opponent, the sword shattered. Kimimaro looked at the hilt of the sword where it remained in his hand in shock. "That's...impossible," he said after a moment.

"I told you," Naruto said. "You can't stop us."

It was at this point that Hinata came forward and whispered something to Naruto. Kimimaro couldn't hear what she was saying, but he decided to just wait and see what would happen next. Naruto came forward and held out a hand to Kimimaro. Kimimaro hesitantly came forward and touched Naruto's fingertip. Suddenly, a surge of red chakra flowed from the blond into Kimimaro's body. To the man's great shock, he felt the chakra surge through him and begin to...fix him. His body, which previously was barely mobile at all, was now...not exactly healthy, but better than it was.

Kimimaro looked at his opponent in shock. "Why would you do this?" he asked after a moment.

Naruto shrugged. "Hinata told me your body was falling apart and you must be in excruciating pain. Living that way can't have been enjoyable at all, and she realized you were probably going to die soon, so I decided to give you a bit more time, at least. Life is precious, and I couldn't just stand here and watch yours expire," he said after a moment.

Kimimaro considered this, then asked, "Then what was that...attack before about?"

Naruto chuckled. "That was just me taking down the four people who had been commanded to capture, corrupt, kill, and torment my best friend," he said back.

It took Kimimaro a moment to make the connection, then he said, "You mean...you killed my comrades with that attack?!" Naruto nodded, waiting to see what the man would do. "You have killed the Sound Four...and bested me...by the traditions of my home, I will now follow you, wherever you may lead," he said formally after thinking for several moments.

"I plan to lead you to the Sound Village, where we will attack Orochimaru and destroy him and everything he stands for. He is to blame for me being who and what I am now, and his life is forfeit for it. If you are okay with that, you are welcome to join us," Naruto growled out.

Kimimaro stopped and considered this. "I suppose I have no choice. However, know this, I will not fight against Lord Orochimaru. I will not hinder you, and if you need it, I will help you with any information I have, but I will not take up arms against him. I can't," he said.

Naruto nodded. "That's understandable. You won't regret this, Kimimaro. By the way, I'm Naruto," he said, chuckling at the irony of introducing himself to a man who had tried to kill him.

Anko and Kiba

Anko gasped as she and Kiba heard a huge explosion not too far from them. "What in the hell was that?!" Kiba asked rhetorically.

"I'm not sure," Anko replied after a moment, then moved toward where they had heard the sound, "but we're going to find out. Something tells me we're going to find something very interesting where that explosion just happened."

Kiba nodded, and the two headed off toward the sound they had heard. Akamaru whimpered. "What is it, boy?" Kiba asked. Akamaru barked his response. "Um...Anko, we need to be very careful," Kiba said after digesting what Akamaru had told him. Anko looked at him with questions in her eyes. "Akamaru can smell chakra, and he just told me that whatever caused that explosion, the chakra involved made the chakra Gaara held within him look like nothing."

Anko's eyebrows raised involuntarily. "Really now..." she said after a moment. "In that case, I agree, we need to be careful. I don't think we'll find anything dangerous up ahead, but still, better safe than sorry." That said, the two continued on their path until they reached a small clearing in the woods. Or...rather, what was left of it. This had obviously been being used as some sort of camp site, judging by the broken tent stakes, tarps, and other such things they found scattered about. They also found what seemed to be the remains of four, maybe five bodies.

"I detect four scents here," Kiba said. Then he paused. "Well, five, actually, but two of them are so similar it's hard to tell them apart at all. What in the world happened here?"

Anko, on the other hand, had frozen upon entering the clearing. She had seen destruction like this before. "Kyubi..." she managed to choke out.

Kiba looked around at her in shock. "Kyubi? What do you mean?"

"This is just like the destruction we saw in the village when the fox attacked us. This is almost identical to the aftermath of one of his Biju Bomb attacks. It seems to be on a slightly smaller scale, but it's otherwise identical."

Kiba considered this and shivered slightly. "Do you think...Naruto...gave in?" he asked after a minute. Anko had no answer for this.

After a few more minutes of this, Anko eventually composed herself and said, "Let's examine these bodies, maybe there's some clue as to what happened here...and why." Kiba nodded, and the two began close examinations of the bodies in the clearing. After a few minutes, Anko had checked all of them and found something disturbing. "They all...had curse marks," she said, almost to herself.

Kiba turned and looked at her. "What's a curse mark?" he asked.

"It's a forbidden jutsu Orochimaru developed. It pumps dark chakra into the victim, giving them a massive boost in strength, speed, reflexes, and jutsu power. But it comes at a horrible cost. Using the curse mark tears apart the body of the user," Anko replied, her voice dripping with venom.

Kiba considered that a moment, then asked the obvious question. "How do you know all that?"

Anko sighed and beckoned Kiba to come closer. He did, and Anko went down on her haunches and moved the collar of her shirt aside, revealing a mark on the side of her neck. "This is my curse mark," she said.

Kiba gasped. "He...marked you?" he asked.

"I was the guinea pig for this jutsu. It didn't work quite the way he intended it to on me, so he cast me aside like so much trash," she answered bitterly after a moment.

Kiba reached up and rested a hand on her arm. "It's okay, I get it," he said comfortingly. "He'll pay for what he's done, you have my word."

Anko smiled slightly at the Genin. "Thanks, kid," she said. "Now come on, let's get back on Naruto and Hinata's trail. There's nothing more we can do here."

Kiba agreed, and the two returned to the trail they'd been following before their detour. They trailed the two to a large clearing, where a third scent joined them. "That's interesting," Kiba muttered. Anko raised an eyebrow at him. "The way those others with the curse mark smelled...this new scent smells like that. Akamaru says he's incredibly powerful, too, but I can tell whoever they met here has a curse mark."

Anko sighed. "So many of his experiments...are we fated to see them all?" she asked bitterly. Kiba could tell without asking that she would have much rather never spoken of or seen her one-time sensei again.

Kiba snarled. He didn't have any personal connection to Orochimaru or any of his "experiments", but he could see the pain the man was causing his comrade, and that was all the reason he needed to be thoroughly pissed off at him.

Naruto and Co.

Naruto and Hinata had followed Kimimaro to a base that was largely underground. "This is it," the man told them. "Lord Orochimaru is in here. This is the Village Hidden in the Sound."

Naruto snarled. "Let's go get him."

Hinata stepped up next to him, Byakugan active. "There's an entrance just over there," she said, pointing off to her left. "It leads to a series of tunnels, one of which leads almost directly to what looks like a throne room, and I can see Orochimaru's chakra in that room."

Naruto nodded and rested a hand on Hinata's arm, careful not to stab her with his not-quite-claws. "I'm glad you came with me, Hinata," he said sincerely. Hinata blushed but kept her Byakugan on as the two turned and made their way toward the entrance.

Kimimaro trailed a bit behind them. "I won't stand in your way," he reminded them, "but I still refuse to take up arms against my liege. Lord Orochimaru saved me from the most horrible things I have ever seen, and I cannot betray him like that."

Naruto responded simply, "We know, Kimimaro. We wouldn't ask you to do that anyway. Besides, you've seen how powerful I am, do you really think I'll need your help to take him down?"

Kimimaro responded simply, "Not so long as you avoid his Grass Longsword, no."

Naruto looked around at his companion. "What do you mean?"

"The Grass Longsword can cut through anything," Kimimaro replied. "I'm fairly certain it would even pierce your chakra cloak. You would be wise not to underestimate it."

Naruto nodded, then asked, "Where does he keep it? I've encountered Orochimaru before, and he didn't have a sword on him then."

"There's a snake he keeps within his body that acts as the sheath for the Grass Longsword," Kimimaro replied. He had promised them information, after all.

Naruto shivered at that, but then he considered what he'd been told a moment. "I'm guessing it's a summon...and that if I take him out with it still in there, the snake will keep it, and it'll be lost to us."

Kimimaro considered that. "Yes, that's probably true. Why?"

"Well, a sword that can cut through anything would almost certainly be useful, wouldn't you agree, Hinata?" Naruto responded.

"Most certainly so," she replied. "But I have to wonder the same thing Kimimaro does, I'm sure. What are you getting at, Naruto?"

"I'm going to make sure he draws that sword...so that when I take him down, it isn't lost. We're going to take that sword from him," Naruto answered with a snarl.

Hinata smiled slightly. "That's a good idea, Naruto," she said just as the three came up to a doorway that seemed to open on a huge room beyond.

"Is this it?" Naruto asked. Hinata nodded. "You two wait here. I'd rather you not get caught up in the cross fire," he said, then, not giving them a chance to respond, turned and went through the doorway.

Jiraiya

Jiraiya sighed deeply as he entered his old home village. "It's been too long," he said to himself. "And yet...this place already seems a little less bright now that Naruto isn't here."

He made his way through the streets, getting both looks of respect (mostly from men) and glares of disgust (mostly from women). He ignored both and made his way to the Hokage tower. Once there, he jumped up and went through the window to his old teacher's office. "Sarutobi-sensei," he greeted.

"Ah, Jiraiya," the old man answered, puffing on his pipe. "It's about time you got here." He said this with a gesture to the other occupants of the room, who turned out to be Tsunade, Shizune, and Tonton.

Jiraiya smiled at his old teammate, who just gave him a bit of a glare. "We've been waiting for you," Tsunade said. "Sarutobi-sensei has gotten so old he can't even explain things twice, so we had to wait for you." This was said with a slight bit of acid toward their old teacher, but most of the venom in her voice was for Jiraiya. Tsunade was many things, but naturally patient was not one of them.

Jiraiya sighed. "You haven't changed, Tsunade," he said. "Although I must say you look even more fetching now than you did the last time I saw you."

Tsunade glared at him. "I look exactly the same now as I did then, I'll have you know!" she answered irritably.

"Maybe so, but there is something different. Maybe it's the look in your eyes, but whatever it is, you're even more beautiful now than you were before," Jiraiya said with a goofy grin.

Tsunade huffed, then turned back to their old teacher. "All right, Sarutobi-sensei, we're both here, now what the hell do you want?"

"Well, first off, I have news about your godson, Jiraiya," he said.

Naruto, Alone

Naruto looked around him, taking in the room where he now found himself. It took him a few moments to do this, but his gaze at last fell upon the lone occupant of the room aside from himself. "Orochimaru," he snarled.

Orochimaru chuckled. "So, you found me, eh, Naruto?" he asked. "I'm surprised you managed to get out of that seal. I didn't think you would ever cooperate with the fox. Guess I underestimated you, after all."

Naruto gave out a barking laugh that sounded to his ears a little _too_ much like the laughter of the fox. "Yes, you underestimated me," he said back. "A lot of people have made that mistake before. And in your case, it will be the last mistake you ever make."

Orochimaru chuckled again. "You can't kill me," he said. "I cast the immortality jutsu on myself long ago. I can't die."

Naruto heard a voice in the back of his head laugh and say, _**"That jutsu only protects the user from dying of old age. It doesn't prevent death by any other means. He's trying to psyche you out."**_

"Good try," Naruto said. "But I know that jutsu only prolongs your life and keeps you from dying from age. It doesn't make you immune from harm."

Orochimaru looked stunned. In fact, he was. He hadn't expected some rank Genin to have even heard of the immortality jutsu, never mind to know how it worked. Still, he wasn't about to let a slight surprise keep him down long. "Very good," he said chuckling. "I'm surprised you've even heard of a forbidden jutsu like that."

Naruto chuckled in response. "One of the very first jutsu I ever learned was a forbidden one," he said. "You really need to stop underestimating me."

Orochimaru considered this, then decided he should at least give the kid _some_ credit. After all, he had gotten out of a seal that was supposed to be unbreakable. Orochimaru still wasn't sure exactly _how_ the kid did that, but he figured it had earned the kid at least a show of effort. "All right, if you insist," he said to Naruto, then turned his face upward. After a moment, a snake popped out of his mouth, opening its own mouth as it did. Orochimaru reached into the snake's mouth and pulled out a longsword.

"_So, that's the Grass Longsword,"_ Naruto thought to himself. _"Perfect."_ He grinned and allowed Orochimaru to re-swallow the snake before moving.

Orochimaru looked back toward the intruder as he closed his mouth and was surprised when the boy didn't hesitate and instead moved toward him at incredible speeds. When the boy reached him, he put out a hand that suddenly grew a huge chakra claw, which hit Orochimaru right across the middle.

The man's top half went flying separate from his legs, which simply fell over. Naruto sighed. "That was too easy," he said simply. Then, to his surprise, he heard the reptilian bastard laughing. Turning, he saw the two halves of Orochimaru's body were sprouting snakes, which grabbed hold of one another and drew his body back together.

"You really shouldn't underestimate me, either," Orochimaru snickered.

Naruto grinned. _"Good. This is going to be fun, after all,"_ he thought to himself and attacked the snake-man again.

Hinata

Hinata watched Naruto viciously attack Orochimaru repeatedly. The reptilian man rarely if ever bothered to dodge Naruto's attacks...or maybe he couldn't, Hinata wasn't sure. Either way, Orochimaru got cut in half several times, his arms and legs were ripped off, he even had his head torn from his shoulders a couple times. Nothing seemed to faze him as the various parts of his body would just grow snakes and reattach themselves to one another each time this happened.

Hinata eventually noticed something shocking. Naruto was _smiling._ He was having fun with this. It was a bit frightening to see her crush actually enjoying himself as he tore his opponent limb-from-limb. She shivered, but then she reminded herself of what this man had done to Naruto. As she considered this, she realized something: she didn't give a shit what Naruto did to the man. He deserved every last bit of it and then some. Eventually, she grinned a bit herself and said softly, "Kick his ass, Naruto."

Naruto

Naruto was starting to get bored with this fight. He had torn this man apart repeatedly, and he just kept putting himself back together. After one particularly devastating set of attacks, the man had...vomited himself up. It was almost like a snake shedding an old skin. It gave Naruto the creeps. _"I hope he can only do that once,"_ Naruto had thought. He didn't want to ever see _that_ happen again as long as he lived.

Still, this fight had gone on too long, and Naruto had come to realize that he had no idea how to take down Orochimaru for good. As he was considering this conundrum, the voice in his head spoke up again. _**"If taking him apart on the visible level isn't working, why not take him apart on the cellular level?"**_ it asked.

Naruto considered this, then asked the voice in return, "Can the Biju Bomb do that?"

The voice gave a dark chuckle, then answered, _**"You underestimate the Biju Bomb. That's only scratching the surface of what it can do."**_

Naruto grinned darkly. Orochimaru, having heard what the boy had said, asked curiously, "Can a Biju Bomb do what, exactly?"

Naruto smiled. "You'll see soon enough," he said back, then moved toward the snake-man again. This time, when Naruto got close to the man, he attacked with his left arm, which the man actually dodged. He did this occasionally, so it didn't completely surprise Naruto. Naruto kept up the assault, keeping his right arm carefully hidden.

Orochimaru was being careful not to let himself get hit now. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't think he wanted to know what the kid in front of him had planned either. Eventually, Naruto backed Orochimaru into a corner and the chakra claw extending from Naruto's left hand grabbed the man around his waist. Pulling him in close, Naruto looked directly into the reptilian eyes.

Orochimaru tried to squirm out of the chakra arm, but it was no use. The grip was too tight and too strong. Looking into those swimming red, purple, and blue eyes was giving him the creeps. It was just...wrong. He opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto beat him to it. "Little trivia for you," Naruto said darkly with a grin. "Foxes eat snakes." That said, Naruto pulled out his long-hidden right hand, which had a swimming mass of blue, red, and black chakra held above it. Orochimaru opened his mouth slightly to say something, but before he could, Naruto shoved the mass of chakra into the man's open mouth and down his throat.

Naruto then quickly released the man and backed away. From halfway across the room, Naruto watched as the man was torn apart from the inside out, ending in a huge explosion of chakra as the Biju Bomb did its work. Making his way to where the man had been, Naruto examined the area with every sense he had. There was nothing left of the reptilian bastard. He had been...for lack of a better word, disintegrated.

Turning, Naruto called out, "You two can come in now, it's safe."

Hinata and Kimimaro obediently entered the room. Hinata, deactivating her Byakugan, ran to Naruto and hugged him around the waist. "I was so worried," she said. "When he kept putting himself back together, I didn't think you'd be able to take him down. What in the world made you think to _feed_ him a Biju Bomb like that?"

Naruto chuckled. "I'll tell you later," he said. "For now, I need to rest." Looking around the room, Naruto only saw one place to sit, and without considering what he was doing, he sat there. Kimimaro immediately went down on one knee. "What are you doing, Kimimaro?" Naruto asked.

"You sit upon the throne of the Sound Village," he responded. "You have defeated our leader and claimed his throne for your own. You are now the de-facto leader of the Village Hidden in the Sound."

Naruto looked at Kimimaro in shock. "I'm now the...leader?" he asked. Kimimaro nodded. Naruto's face eventually broke into a grin. "It may not be Hokage, but I can deal with this," he said. "But we have got to change that name. I said we were going to destroy everything Orochimaru stood for, and the name of this village is part of that."

Hinata considered this, then softly interjected, "I always saw you as being like the sun, Naruto." Naruto looked at her, questions in his eyes. "Maybe you should name the village after that."

Naruto smiled. "Yes...I think I shall. I like that idea. Thank you, Hinata," he said. Turning to the room at large, he said loudly, "Welcome, one and all, to the newly named Village Hidden in the Sun, also known as Taiyogakure. And I, Naruto Uzumaki, do hereby declare myself the First Taiyokage!"

A/N: Dun dun DUN! So now Naruto is leading his own village. What will he do with it? What will Hinata, Kimimaro, and others say to this? How will Sasuke react when he reaches the newly-named "Sun Village"? Come back next time to find out!


End file.
